Before I Even Knew You, I Knew You Were Amazing
by CountTheCrows
Summary: A painting of Bay's brings back a childhood memory for Emmett, one that includes Bay. Bay-Emmett meeting as children/fluff. Really short one-shot/drabble.


Before I Even Knew You, I Knew You Were Amazing

"And what about this one? In all the years I've known you, you've never told me about it," he said, pointing to the canvas with a soccer ball outlined in a mix of wild colors.

"Ah, that is just further proof of my athletic inability."

She looked up to see her boyfriend staring at her waiting for the rest of the story.

"It's a boring tale, Emmet. Really."

"Nothing about you is boring."

Bay sighed.

"My dad wanted me to be good at a sport – any sport – because he's the "great" John Kennish. So the lesser of the evils was soccer, but I sucked. Hard. I tried, really I did, and yet, I still failed. One day after I game that I blew, I guess my dad realized it wasn't for me and he brought out paints and a blank canvas and a soccer ball and told me to go for it. So, I did."

Suddenly, Emmett's struck by a memory.

_He must have been either seven or eight and he's at the park throwing a Frisbee around with his dad. He loves doing stuff like this with his dad. _

"_Go farther back, Emmett," Cameron tells him._

_He runs and collides into a small girl with a lot of curly hair. _

"_Why don't you watch where you're going?" the girl asks, a hint of annoyance in her face. _

_Emmett can only read her lips._

"_I'm sorry," he says, signing._

_The girl looks at him with a bewildered expression._

"_I don't know what that means."_

_Emmett feels himself smiling. He likes this girl. _

_He points to his ears and shakes his head._

"_You can't hear?" _

_He nods._

_The girl looks at him like she doesn't know what to say, as if she's afraid to offend him. Emmett can she she's being careful, but not in a way to suggest that she feels sorry for him._

_She observes Cameron watching them and he's holding the Frisbee waiting for Emmett to get into a good catching position._

"_I hate sports. My daddy is making me play soccer," she says, glumly kicking the ball. "I have my first game tomorrow, and I am going to mess up."_

_Emmett takes notice at how red she's turning and how hard she's trying not to cry, but the tears are forming._

_He wants to help this stranger, but how? Just then a light bulb goes off in his mind. He picks up the soccer ball and lines it up perfectly with his right foot and then blasts a kick. The ball goes flying and the girl's jaw drops, but she's also smiling._

"_That was so cool!" She claps. "Do it again!"_

_Emmett runs over to where the ball landed and kicks it back with the same force to where the girl is. Again, she's clapping._

_Emmett points to her and the ball._

_The girl shakes her head 'no.'_

_Emmett shakes his head 'yes.'_

_She glares at him, but steps up to the ball anyway. She draws her leg back and kicks, but ends up missing the ball and falling. Emmett runs over to her._

"_Just leave me alone."_

_She starts to walk away, but Emmett grabs her elbow, lightly._

_Once again, Emmett demonstrates how to kick the ball. And once again, the girl's face lights up in amusement when it goes far. _

_This time he kicks the ball back to the girl and then walks over to her. He puts one finger up as if to say "Just one more time."_

_The little girl nods and he knows even at this young age that this girl is brave. She's not afraid to make mistakes and fall down and get back up dusting off her bruised ego as she does._

"_Here it goes."_

_She doesn't miss this time. In fact, this time the ball goes just as far as Emmett's did._

"_I did it! I did it!" The girl starts jumping up and down. She hugs Emmett. "Thank you."_

_Just then Cameron comes over to him._

"_Hey buddy, we gotta get going. Say goodbye to your friend."_

_The girl watches their signing with nothing but amazement. _

"_That's so cool, what you do with your hands."_

_Emmett smiles._

"_Do you have to go?"_

_He nods._

"_Okay. Maybe I'll see you around."_

_He hopes so._

He was brought back to the present by Bay standing in front of him waving her hands.

"Hello? Emmett? Where did you just go?"

How could he not have remembered meeting Bay before this?

"Sorry. Just remembered something."

"Oh?"

He didn't want to tell her though. He wanted to keep this to himself.

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter. All that matters is I bet you were amazing even back then."

"If you had known me then you would not have thought that."

But he did and he does.

He always will.


End file.
